Chapter 318: The Mad Old Man

"Beep... beep... beep... beep..."

Following a miserable shriek from Guo Qin, the busy signal of a disconnected call came from the other end; when he dialed again, the phone was already powered off.

Ye Lin was somewhat shocked. He had some understanding of Guo Qin's strength; while it couldn't be called top-tier, he was at least capable of running away if he couldn't win.

Yet, at this very moment, Guo Qin was actually being cornered and beaten, which meant the husband of the woman Guo Qin was having an affair with was definitely no weakling!

Combining this with the intelligence he and Bai Si had just investigated, the identity of the person Guo Qin had cuckolded became immediately apparent.

"The Chen family? The Lin family? Or... the Investigation Bureau?" Ye Lin muttered to himself.

Aside from these three factions, it was difficult to find any powerhouse in Hucheng capable of cornering and beating Guo Qin.

"Don't you dare die on a woman's belly..."

As things stood, Ye Lin could only temporarily abandon the plan to find that half of the ancient artifact of origin. After all, the ancient artifact wouldn't run away, but if he went to Guo Qin's side too late, that guy might just lose his life.

Ye Lin quickly rendezvoused with Bai Si and informed her of Guo Qin's situation.

Bai Si was silent for a moment, then spoke up to ask.

"So what do you plan to do? Force your way in to save him?"

"Of course not, I'm not an idiot! I definitely have to sneak in!" Ye Lin nodded solemnly. "Quick, calculate it! Where is Guo Qin?"

"How am I supposed to calculate that? Aside from knowing his name and that he's lecherous, I have no information on him at all. What am I supposed to use to calculate?" Bai Si rolled her eyes.

The ability of the Eternal Cube was deduction, not clairvoyance; a clever housewife cannot cook without rice. This was like trying to untangle a messy ball of yarn—you have to have an end of the thread first.

"His information..."

Ye Lin was stunned for a moment. He suddenly realized that he seemed to know nothing about Guo Qin either!

Guo Qin's age, Guo Qin's family, Guo Qin's past, Guo Qin's specific strength... Ye Lin couldn't answer a single one.

That guy who followed behind his heels every day, flattering him and calling him "Young Master," was someone he seemed to have never truly understood.

"Then how about this! Calculate me. Calculate which direction I should go to seek good fortune and avoid disaster! That should be possible, right?"

"That is possible."

Bai Si nodded, then began to use the Eternal Cube to deduce. Half a quarter of an hour later, she slowly opened her eyes, a hint of confusion in their depths.

"I have deduced... two results."

"Oh?" Ye Lin was somewhat surprised.

"The first result: stay where you are and don't interfere with anything. Nothing bad will happen to you, but you will gain nothing and lose nothing," Bai Si stated her first deduction result.

"Gain nothing and lose nothing? Does that mean Guo Qin won't be in mortal danger?" Ye Lin muttered to himself. "Then what is the second result?"

"The second result: you set off in the southeast direction now. You will encounter three people you cannot defeat. Fortune and disaster are interdependent; as for the specifics, that depends on you!" Bai Si said in a deep voice.

"Three people I cannot defeat? Are you serious?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Lin felt a chill. In this Hucheng, there were three people he couldn't defeat? And he could encounter them all on one path? This was a bit too terrifying.

"I am only telling you the result of the deduction. As for how you choose, that is your decision," Bai Si said.

"You said fortune and disaster are interdependent. To what extent can the disaster be, and to what extent can the fortune be?" Ye Lin pressed.

"I don't know." Bai Si shook her head. "My strength is limited; there are some things I cannot calculate and cannot see clearly."

Ye Lin began to feel troubled. He narrowed his eyes, then grinned.

"If you can't see clearly, then so be it. Even if I can't beat them, can't I still run away?"

Without another word, Ye Lin took out a dagger and chopped off his own little finger, handing it along with the Great Sumeru Ring to Bai Si.

"Take this, then find a place to hide and wait for me. Keep it in your bosom as much as possible to maintain its temperature; don't let the cells lose their vitality."

Bai Si was stunned at first, then she quickly realized what Ye Lin was planning to do.

If he truly encountered an enemy he couldn't beat and couldn't escape from, at worst he would discard this body and use this finger to regenerate.

This was the first time Ye Lin had attempted this method. The main issue was that he didn't know how long this finger could last; once the cells in the finger completely lost their vitality, the finger would effectively lose its utility.

"I'm off. Hide well."

Ye Lin set off toward the southeast. Before long, a quaint and magnificent residence came into view.

No matter which city it was in, anyone who could afford to live in such a sprawling residence clearly did not have a simple identity.

Ye Lin bought a cup of smashed lemon tea by the roadside. Watching the big-boss lady in the spaghetti-strap top vigorously pounding the lemons, Ye Lin felt that the 15 yuan was well spent!

Subsequently, in the process of chatting with the big-boss lady, Ye Lin learned that this residence was the dwelling of the Chen brothers.

"So that kid Guo Qin really went to mess with the Chen brothers' woman?"

Ye Lin took a sip of lemon tea. The next second, he was suddenly tripped by someone and nearly fell face-first into the dirt.

"What the hell?"

Ye Lin looked down. An old man covered in filth with a withered face was lying on the ground, his hair as messy as dead grass, his skin shriveled, emitting a shocking stench. In one hand, he clutched a wine pouch so black its original color was unrecognizable, and with the other, he grabbed Ye Lin's pant leg, drunkenly saying.

"Young man, have some mercy, give me some money."

In the past, given Ye Lin's character of respecting the old and loving the young, he definitely would have kicked him away. But this time, he didn't dare to move. Who knew if this old man might be one of the three people he couldn't defeat?

Just as Ye Lin was hesitating about what to do, the lady in the spaghetti-strap top walked right out.

"You mad old man, get lost, get lost! Don't disturb my business! You stink! Who would dare come to buy things with you here?"

The lady kicked and shooed the old man away.

"Who is he?" Ye Lin asked curiously.

"Just a mad old man. He wanders around here every day, begging from everyone he meets. Once he gets money, he goes to buy wine. He's just a lunatic!" the lady said irritably.

"A lunatic? And he loves to drink?" Ye Lin was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with joy. Wasn't this the classic template for a hidden master? "Old man, wait for me!"

Ye Lin caught up to the mad old man and took out all the cash he had on him, handing it to the old man.

"For me? You're giving me all this money?" The mad old man's eyes were full of surprise.

"Old man, my good friend has been harmed by someone. I am going to save him tonight, and the journey will surely be fraught with danger. Wealth is merely an external possession; if I die, wouldn't it just benefit my enemies? Since that is the case, I might as well do a good deed before I die and let you use it to buy wine."

Ye Lin smiled nonchalantly, possessing a sense of tragic heroism, like the wind blowing cold at the Yi River, never to return.

"Yay!"

The mad old man acted as if he hadn't heard a word Ye Lin said, happily taking the money and running off, fearing Ye Lin might take it back.

A moment later, the mad old man returned with wine. Once happy from drinking, he began to dance in the middle of the street as if no one were around. The people living nearby seemed long accustomed to the mad old man's bizarre behavior.

Ye Lin didn't take it to heart. If this old man really was a hidden master, a little cash to buy an expert's favor was a guaranteed profit. Even if the old man was truly just a lunatic, he hadn't lost anything; at worst, he could just grab the old man and find him a job on a death-assembly line.